VON VISIN. 



VOllOSMARTY, MIHALY. 



460 



VONVISIN. [VisiN, VON.] 



VONDEL, JOOST VON DEN", the great national poet of Holland, 

 was born November 17th, 1587, at Cologne, to which city his parents 

 had retired from Antwerp, in order to avoid the persecution to which, 

 beiug Anabaptists, they were exposed from the religious severity and 

 jealousy of the Austrian-Spanish government. As soon however as 

 the republic of the United Provinces was established, the family 

 removed to Amsterdam, where Vondel continued to reside during his 

 very long life. The education he received from his parents did not 

 extend beyond the ordinary acquirement of reading and writing ; for 

 his father was only a tradesman, as he was afterwards himself, dealing 

 in hosiery as his ostensible business, though making poetry his serious 

 occupation. How he contrived to reconcile literary study with 

 business we are not informed ; but there is reason for supposing that 

 his attention to the first rather checked his success iii the latter, 

 since he seems to have been far from prosperous in trade as a hosier. 

 For poetry he is said to have evinced a taste very early, and even to 

 have given evidence of his poetic talent when he was no more than 

 thirteen. It was not however until he had reached double that age that 

 he began to study Latin. Not only was his proficiency in the language 

 rapid, but a decided improvement, both as to style and ideas, it is 

 said, soon began to manifest itself in his compositions; yet in pro- 

 portion as he caught the tone as well as the spirit of the ancients, he 

 probably lost originality of invention and freshness of feeling. His 

 tragedies, which form so considerable a portion and so important a 

 class of his productions, show him to have possessed far higher genius 

 as a lyric poet than as a dramatist ; for they owe their chief attraction 

 to the ' Reien,' or choruses with which they are interspersed, and 

 many of which are splendid lyrical effusions ; it is these, in fact, which 

 give us the loftiest flights of Vondel's genius, and which constitute 

 his chief attractions for modern readers. A selection of them was 

 made by De Vries, who published it in 1820. Among the more 

 celebrated of his dramatic poems are his ' Palamedes,' 'Gijsbrecht von 

 Amstel,' and ' Lucifer.' The first of these, which was a direct allusion 

 to the fate of the grand-pensionary Barneveldt [BARNEVELDT], obtained 

 for its author both political and literary distinction ; for though not 

 published till the Prince Maurice's death, in 1625, it was prosecuted 

 by those in power as treasonable, and as libellous on the memory of 

 that prince, and it was only with great difficulty that Vondel escaped 

 severer punishment than a fine of 300 guldens. On the other hand it 

 obtained for him the highest renown both as a patriot and a poet, and 

 passed through thirty editions in the course of a few years. The 

 'Gijsbrecht,' which was written by him for the opening of the new 

 theatre at Amsterdam, in 1637, is justly considered one of his master- 

 pieces, and is also, of all his dramas, that which is most national 

 in its eiibject. That however which possesses for us as Englishmen 

 almost the charm of nationality, is the ' Lucifer,' for it may be con- 

 sidered the precursor of our ' Paradise Lost,' which it anticipated by 

 fourteen years ; consequently for its Miltonic grandeur and inspiration 

 it is not at all indebted to the work of the English bard, nor is there 

 reason to suppose that Milton kindled his flame at that of his illus- 

 trious contemporary. Milton and Vondel were kindred spirits. 



To enumerate here chronologically all the productions of Vondel, 

 not in the drama alone, but in almost every other species of poetical 

 composition, would be useless. We will therefore specify one per- 

 formance, which, had he completed it, might alone have secured for 

 him the reputation of an epic poet, namely, a poem, of which Constan- 

 tino the Great was the hero, and which he began in 1632; but the 

 death of his wife shortly afterwards, caused him to abandon the sub- 

 ject, and, lest he should be tempted to resume it, he destroyed the 

 manuscript. The loss of his wife was indeed a severe blow to him, 

 for it was she who had chiefly attended to the concerns of their busi- 

 ness. From that time his circumstances grew worse, and his embar- 

 rassments were afterwards so much increased by the conduct of a 

 spendthrift son, that at the age of seventy-two he was glad to obtain a 

 situation with a small salary in a bank at Amsterdam. Even there 

 however neither his energy nor his genius deserted him, for it was at 

 this period that he composed, besides several other things, his 

 ' Jephtha,' one of the best and the most regular of his tragedies. . At 

 length, in 1668, he was permitted to retire, retaining his salary as a 

 pension for life ; and, notwithstanding his then advanced age, he lived 

 to enjoy it many years, for he did not die until February 5, 1679, 

 when he had attained a length of days that entitles him to be classed 

 among the patriarchs of literature and art. 



VOPISCUS, FLAVIUS. [AUGUSTA HISTORIA.] 



VORONIKHIN, ANDREI NIKOPHOROVICH, a Russian archi- 

 tect, was born in 1760, among the peasantry of Count Alexander 

 Stroganov, who, having heard of his talent for drawing, sent him, in 

 1777, to Moscow, in order to be properly educated as an artist, and he 

 there received some instruction from Bazhenov and Kazakov, two 

 eminent architects. He was then sent to travel with his patron's son, 

 Count Paul Stroganov, and after visiting the southern provinces of 

 Russia, Germany, and Switzerland, resided for some time at Paris, 

 diligently profiting by the opportunities there afforded of pursuing 

 his architectural studies. In 1790 he returned to St. Petersburg, 

 where Stroganov's protection soon brought him .into notice, and 

 obtained for him employment. Mere employment however, without 

 lore than ordinary opportunities, can hardly lead to architectural 



BIOG. DIV. VOL. VI. 



fame; it wan therefore fortunate for Voronikhin that such oppor- 

 tunity was given him in the erection of what is still one of the finest 

 monuments of the northern capital of Russia. It was in 1800 that 

 the Emperor Paul conceived the idea of building a magnificent 

 cathedral in the ' Nevskii Prospect,' to be dedicated to ' Our Lady of 

 Kazan ; ' and Voronikhin, who was then professor at the Academy of 

 Arts, was appointed architect. In the following year the first atone 

 was laid by the Emperor Alexander, and the edifice was completed 

 and solemnly consecrated in September 1811. Criticism has not been 

 sparing of its remarks on this piece of architecture ; because the prin- 

 cipal fa9ade is extended by a semicircular colonnade it has been called 

 a copy of St. Peter's at Rome on a reduced scale, whereas there is no 

 other point of similarity between the two buildings. Although Voro- 

 nikhin is said to have erected a great many other buildings, both 

 public and private, we have no sufficient account nor even a complete 

 list of them ; among them however are said to bo the colonnade in 

 the gardens at Peterhof, the terraces, &c. at Strelna, and several villas 

 at Gatchina and Pavlovsky. Voronikhin died rather suddenly, Feb. 21 

 (March 5), 1814. 



VORONTSOV. [WORONZOW.] 



VOROSMARTY, MIHALY or MICHAEL, an eminent Hungarian 

 poet and prose writer, was born at Nyer in the county of FejervaV, 

 called by the Germans Stuhlweissenburg, in the year 1800. His 

 father, whom he lost early, was steward to a nobleman. Michael went 

 in 1817 to Pesth to study law, and in 1824 he was admitted as an 

 advocate, but he early adopted literature as a profession. In 1821 

 appeared his first drama, ' King Solomon,' founded on the History of 

 King Solomon of Hungary, and in 1824 another drama, 'King Sigis- 

 mund,' between which, in 1822, was published his romantic poem of 

 the ' Triumph of Fidelity.' It was as an epic poet that he attained 

 the greatest celebrity : his ' Zalan Futa"sa/ or Flight of Zalan, his 

 ' Cserhalom,' and his 'Tundervolgy,' or Enchanted Valley, the first 

 published in 1824 and the last in 1827, are considered the finest 

 narrative poems in the Hungarian language. For some years Vb'ros- 

 marty was editor of the ' Tudomanyos Gyujtemeny,' or Repository of 

 Science, a monthly magazine, which lasted under his guidance and 

 that of others for a quarter of a century, and was during its con- 

 tinuance the chief organ of Hungarian periodical literature. He was 

 afterwards concerned with Bajza and Schedel in the editorship of the 

 ' Athenaeum,' a periodical not unlike the London ' Athenajum,' which 

 had for a time great and deserved success. In 1830, on the establish- 

 ment of the Hungarian Academy at Pesth, he was appointed one of its 

 members, and soon afterwards its secretary, and for pome years his 

 life flowed in an unbroken course of literary labours and literary fame. 

 In general his reputation stood higher among the educated classes 

 than among the people ; but one of his lyric poems, the ' Szdzat,' or 

 Appeal, written in 1840, enjoyed a double success; it rose at once to 

 a strong popularity among the people, like that of the ' Marseillaise ' 

 in France, and the Hungarian Academy presented the poet with a 

 ducat for every line. Some of the lines of the ' SzcSzat,' the subject 

 of which is the fate and prospects of the Hungarian nation, have since 

 acquired a melancholy increase of significance : 



" For come there will, and come there must, 

 To us a better time. 



" And if it come not, then come Death 



To end our dark career, 

 And be our country, drenched in blood, 

 Laid on a glorious bier." 



It was natural that at the outbreak of the revolution of 1848 the 

 poet of the ' Szdzat ' should be called on to take a part, and he was 

 elected deputy for the county of Bacska. His course in the Assembly 

 however was far from meeting the approval of some of the more fiery 

 patriot!*. The popular and impetuous Petofi, the Hungarian Burns, 

 was so indignant at one of Vorosmarty's votes that in a poetical 

 address to him he renounced his friendship. [PETOFI.] On the final 

 triumph of the Austrians Vorosmarty was brought to trial, and con- 

 demned as a member of some of the revolutionary committees, but 

 was released and pardoned after a short imprisonment. Such however 

 was the effect produced upon him by the calamities of his country, 

 that he sunk into a deep melancholy, and lived for two or three years 

 in retirement, without suffering pen and paper to come in his sight. 

 At length, in 1854, his friends roused him in some degree from this 

 state of depression, and he undertook a translation of Shakspere, some 

 of whose plays he had rendered into Hungarian in happier days. The 

 task was still not completed when Vorosmarty died at Pesth, on the 

 9th of November 1856. 



An edition of the works of Vorosmarty was issued by his friends 

 Bajza and Schedel as part of the collection of the Hungarian classics, 

 entitled the ' Nemzeti Kony vtar,' or National Library. It was pub- 

 lished in 1847. The divisions adopted for the writings are Lyric 

 Poetry, Narrative Poems, Dramas, More Recent Poetry, Novels and 

 Tales, and Miscellaneous Writings in Prose, which are subdivided into 

 Essays on Language and Literature, and .Dramatic Criticisms. The 

 whole are comprised in one thick octavo volume, printed in double 

 columns, but would occupy nine or ten ordinary octavos. Voros- 

 marty's writings are more distinguished for classical correctness of 

 form than for striking originality of substance. His narrative poems 



2 G 



